TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Rick Scott opened the 2015 legislative session Tuesday by bragging about Florida’s economic gains in his first term, but also urged lawmakers to pass his agenda of tax cuts, freezing college tuition and increasing education spending.

“In the weeks ahead, I expect some people will try to divide us. They will try to distract us. But . . . I believe we can come together with our shared desire to improve this great state,” Scott said in his State of the State speech.

But he ignored a range of scandals involving inmate deaths at prisons, deaths of children that had been on the radar of the state’s child welfare agency and his firing of the state’s top law enforcement official without the required Cabinet approval.

Instead, Scott forged on with his push to cut manufacturing and cable and phone taxes, and asked lawmakers to “hold the line” on college tuition.

“Just like any business we should expect education to become more affordable each year, not less,” Scott said. “We...

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a close ally of President Barack Obama and personal friend of Vice President Joe Biden, had previously announced he is attending the speech.

Grayson's office declined to make a statement about his attendance. Brown's office called the speech "inappropriate."

"Congresswoman Brown believes that it is completely inappropriate for the invite to have come from Speaker Boehner, who not only bypassed President Obama and the State Department, but did not even inform them that the House leadership was inviting the Israeli Prime Minister to address Congress," stated Brown's press secretary David Simon.

Grayson is Jewish and his plans to attend are like those of other Florida Democrats who are Jewish, including...

While some of their colleagues opt out in protest, South Florida’s trio of Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House will be on hand Tuesday to hear Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial address to a joint session of Congress.

The three – Ted Deutch of Boca Raton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston and Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach – are unflagging advocates for Israel. They also are among the most loyal supporters of President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat who will be snubbed.

Some Democrats are boycotting the speech, accusing Netanyahu of playing partisan politics and jeopardizing bipartisan support for Israel by talking to Congress but not Obama. The flap prompted callers from South Florida to ask Deutch whether he will attend.

“Everyone recognizes that Israel will be impacted by the results of these negotiations,” Deutch said in an interview. “They are a close ally, and as a result, too important to not hear what they have to say.

PALM BEACH — Marco Rubio isn't quite ready to say he's running for president, yet admits it sure does look like he will seek the White House in 2016.

“I think that's reflected in both our travel and some of the staffing decisions that we've made,” the Florida senator told The Associated Press. “We — if in fact I make that final decision on a run — want those elements to be in place.”

The message that his decision is still pending is one Rubio delivered again this past week on stage, both at the Conservative Public Action Conference outside Washington and at the conservative Club For Growth in Palm Beach. But allies of the first-term senator and former speaker of the Florida House who have spoken with him about his plans fully expect that he will run for president, rather than a second Senate term.

“I assume he's running,” said Wayne Berman, a veteran Republican fundraiser who was chairman of Sen. John McCain's presidential fundraising in 2008. “He will help the party turn the page,...

TALLAHASSEE - Affordable housing programs could wind up being pitted against conservation projects in a budget fight at the Capitol, though interests groups from both sides insist there’s plenty of money to go around.

The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation group, wants a fair share of doc stamp revenues to go to land purchases and other conservation efforts. The Sadowski Coalition, a collection of business, low-income housing and homeless advocate groups, wants lawmakers to put a fair share of doc stamp revenues to affordable housing programs.